Iran's Proxy War Against the United States and the Iraqi Government
A PUBLICATION OF THE INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF WAR AND WEEKLYSTANDARD.COM A PUBLICATION OF THE INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF WAR AND WEEKLYSTANDARD.COM A paratrooper from 1-501 Airborne escorts a rogue Jaish Al Mahdi rocket cell militant to the pickup zone after completing a precision raid to disrupt the cell on August 12. SGT. ERNEST HENRY / U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE PHOTO DEFENSE OF DEPARTMENT / U.S. HENRY ERNEST SGT. May 2006 – August 20, 2007 Iran’s Proxy War against the United States and the Iraqi Government by KIMBERLY KAGAN Summary Iran, and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah, have been actively involved in supporting Shia militias and encouraging sectarian violence in Iraq since the invasion of 2003—and Iranian planning and preparation for that effort began as early as 2002. The precise purposes of this support are unclear and may have changed over time. But one thing is very clear: Iran has consistently supplied weapons, its own advisors, and Lebanese Hezbollah advisors to multiple resistance groups in Iraq, both Sunni and Shia, and has supported these groups as they have targeted Sunni Arabs, Coalition forces, Iraqi Security Forces, and the Iraqi Government itself. Their infl uence runs from Kurdistan to Basrah, and Coalition sources report that by August 2007, Iranian-backed insurgents accounted for roughly half the attacks on Coalition forces, a dramatic change from previous periods that had seen the overwhelming majority of attacks coming from the Sunni Arab insurgency and al Qaeda. The Coalition has stepped-up its efforts to combat
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